Francis Chan reminds us to find joy even through the difficult times of ministry.

He says, “Talking to a guy last night, good friend of mine, great pastor, man of God, just going, ‘man,’ as we’re talking about rejoicing, ‘I honestly don’t remember the last time I just had joy doing ministry. It’s like I have to escape ministry to have joy.’ And as I thought about it I wonder how many of us in this room have just been in this survival mode. Because it’s tough. And making disciples is hard and this focus on discipleship is difficult. I mean, one of the most difficult things is you can spend so much time with one or two people and then they go off the deep end…And it’s not fun. You know where there’s other things in ministry that give the appearance of life and fruit…yet discipleship it’s difficult and can get depressing…So I would love to just pray a prayer of joy over you and really believe that that could happen, because God says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I’ll say it again—Rejoice.’

<style=”text-align: left;”>And sometimes, even conferences can feel burdensome, because we hear all these messages of how we’re just doing everything wrong…I want this to be a time of rejoice, because remember who we are…God put His Holy Spirit inside of us! We’re temples of the Living God. We’re children of God. Almighty God is up there in heaven looking at us, His adopted children that he thought about before the creation of the world. And we can’t walk around with this lack of joy! That’s not what He wants for His kids. He wants us so blown away by His truths that with great joy we proceed…”

How do you find joy in difficult times of disciple making? Comment below or tweet us @VergeNetwork.

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Equipping Leaders for Mission | An advocate and champion for movements of gospel-centered Missional Communities, Verge Network exists for church leaders, students, entrepreneurs, artists, urban innovators, business leaders, community development specialists, non-profit leaders, church planters and everyday leaders – anyone pursuing the mission of God, in community, whatever the context, for the sake of the Gospel.